Northland College Magazine Fall 2021 by Northland College

FALL 2021

MEETING THE WORLD WITH HEART Pg. 3

RESTORING FISH CREEK Pg. 6

WHERE THE LOVE IS Pg. 12

ONE PRECIOUS LIFE Pg. 26 FALL 2021

From the President THE COVER Drawn with scissors, the cover illustration brings together elements and symbols of each of the featured stories. Black ash, words from Louise Erdrich’s The Round House, the color of concrete skateparks and bus garages, and paper the texture of composted straw blend to represent the collective heart of what it means to be in this grand community called Northland. —Jerry Lehman Senior Graphic Designer

Stay Connected @northland_edu facebook.com/northlandEDU @northland_edu MARY O’BRIEN Strategic Director of Advancement & Marketing Communications mobrien@northland.edu 715-682-1496

JACKIE MOORE ’05 Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving alumni@northland.edu 715-682-1811

JULIE BUCKLES Director of Communications jbuckles@northland.edu 715-682-1664

Northland College Magazine SPRING  Mission

Northland College integrates liberal arts studies with an environmental emphasis, enabling those it serves to address the challenges of the future. © 2021 Northland College Printed with soy ink on 10% post-consumer FSC Certified paper. Elemental chlorine free. Made with 100% certified renewable electricity.

As president of Northland College, I have the privilege of issuing each entering class a charge for the next four years. Convocation is one among many milestones in the careers of our students, culminating in that auspicious day when diplomas are bestowed upon them. At graduation, our students become Northland family for life and join the ranks of the deeply inspiring and compelling alumni featured in this magazine. Seven-fold, my charge marks the beginning of a journey that hopefully guides our new community members to inner advancement, insight, and fulfillment. I charge you to be good citizens of this community, to show respect in equal measure for sameness and diversity, to understand the sanctity of space and to esteem the intersection of humankind and nature. I charge you to show excellence in the classroom, on the field or court, and in all of your curricular and extra-curricular endeavors. I charge you to challenge yourself, to take calculated risks, forget your comfort zone, be bold, curious, intrepid.

I charge you to be thoughtful, collaborative, challenging, challenged, brilliant, funny, pensive, at times melancholy, and genuine. I charge you to build community, enter into life-long friendships and enjoy the stewardship among the many faculty and staff at the College who will be your mentors and supporters in the coming years. I assure you that these relationships can and will change your life. Finally, I charge you to seek happiness and joy, certainly not at the expense of others, but as a deep inner satisfaction that gives you focus, purpose, and fortitude. My charge closes with a pledge to serve our students well, and I cannot think of anything that is more evocative of Northland’s heart, the community of students we serve together. Warm best –

Karl I. Solibakke President

I charge you to question any and everything that merits scrutiny and investigation.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS SEPTEMBER 23-24, 2022

Meeting the World with Heart

By Nicole Foster, Assistant Professor of Sustainable Community Development In February 2021, I collaborated on an international light festival in Bristol, England. Artists activated parks, bridges, and buildings with interactive, multi-sensory experiences of light and sound. Attracting over 100,000 people, the Light Festival coaxed participants to explore and engage with the city in entirely new ways. Cities often host festivals to attract tourists and boost economic development; however, we know that we experience something much more profound when we participate in shared cultural experiences. Art and culture connect us to one another and the places where we live and love. As an academic, I focus on the impact of these connections. Specifically, I research how art and culture revitalize communities and envision more just and sustainable futures. Much of this work has been practice-based, meaning that I collaborate with diverse partners—artists, cities, organizations—to implement cultural plans, creative placemaking projects, and creative economy initiatives. This research is especially relevant for the Chequamegon Bay and other postindustrial regions, which must transition from extractive to sustainable economies. As

students and I discussed in my Culture and Revitalization class, facing these challenges requires care and attention to community members who often grieve the loss of jobs, relationships, and places that were once central to everyday life. Drawing from current research, case studies, and historic examples like the Wisconsin Idea Theater, we explored how art and culture address this loss, repair fractured communities, and support inclusive development. In Ashland, we see such impacts through the beautiful mosaics co-created by Northland sustainable community development alumna Rose Spieler ’12 and community members. These mosaics improve infrastructure by activating linkages between downtown and the lakeshore. Ashland is also home to numerous murals celebrating local history and the contributions of community members. By creating a sense of place, these projects are key to reconnecting communities and revitalizing the city. Northland students and I are building on these cultural assets through new research and class projects. In my Organizing Communities class, students collaborated with Ashland’s Parks and Recreation department and the East End Neighborhood to facilitate a community visioning project.

In addition to analyzing census and survey data, students planned creative engagement activities to learn what residents value most and identify priorities for neighborhood improvement. Students shared findings and policy recommendations with Ashland city councilors, Parks and Recreation Commission members, and local residents. In the spring, we hope to build on this work by facilitating creative projects aimed at strengthening place attachment, community identity, and social capital in the neighborhood. We will also be collaborating with Arts Wisconsin and the Chequamegon Bay Arts Council to re-imagine what a sustainable creative economy looks like in a postCovid, rural context. Student researchers will facilitate focus groups to learn about challenges and opportunities facing regional artists, makers, and producers. As we return to campus this fall, we will continue to face uncertainties related to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Despite these challenges, I know that culture connects us, and that we will meet the world with heart as we collectively repair and strengthen our communities.

FALL 2021

IN BRIEF

NORTHLAND STARTS SEMESTER STRONG

“We are proud of how well the College has done and are feeling optimistic for the future,” said Karl Ivan Solibakke, president at Northland. The campus continues to follow guidelines from the Center for Disease Control and Pervention. All students, faculty, and staff, whether vaccinated or not, are required to wear masks inside. Unvaccinated athletes who are actively in their sport are being tested regularly for COVID-19. “Today, there is so much more vibrancy on campus and a return to what feels like some semblance of normalcy,” he said.

What the Founders Got Wrong A Constitution Day Conversation

In March 2020, Russ Feingold, Wisconsin’s former US Senator, became the president of the American Constitution Society. Feingold has a house on Madeline Island and has spent portions of the last thirty-five years in the region. “Anyone who knows me knows your part of the country is my favorite place on Earth,” he told Angela Stroud, associate professor of sociology and social justice, during his opening remarks during a virtual conversation. Feingold joined Stroud for a brown bag discussion about the promise and failures of the US Constitution. “The only way to allow the Constitution to be credible is to be candid,” he said. “It’s a marvelous concept and brutal document.” September 17 is Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, an American federal observance recognizing the adoption of the US Constitution and those who have become US citizens by birth or naturalization.

LISTEN TO THE CONVERSATION

northland.edu/constitution

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CAMPUS COMMUNITY

VACCINATED 4

NORTHLAND COLLEGE MAGAZINE

Sierra has again named Northland College a “cool school” in its annual top-100 list of sustainable colleges and universities. Northland College ranked seventy-third out of 328 participating schools—and remains at the top in Wisconsin and in the Midwest.

Governor Evers Tours Sustainable Food Program Hulings Rice Food Center Assistant Manager Danny Simpson ’18 led Governor Tony Evers on a tour of the processing center, compost, and high tunnel garden in May. This was the Governor's first visit to Northland College.

the College's efforts in creating a sustainable campus food system, the power of expanding local foods through institutional buying, experiential learning opportunities, sustainable agriculture, and creative foodrelated projects.

Simpson, who is a passionate advocate for local foods, talked about

Governor Evers also had an opportunity to hear from Jason Fischbach,

UW-Extension, about his hazelnut project, and from three sustainable agriculture students about their education. “I was most impressed by how this program impacts students,” Evers said. “Young people coming out of this program will be leading in sustainability for the rest of their lives.”

While each institution on Sierra’s list “demonstrates a deep commitment to addressing climate change, protecting the natural world, and encouraging environmental stewardship,” Katie O’Reilly, adventure and lifestyle editor at Sierra noted that “many among the top-scoring schools whose representatives spoke to Sierra made a point of acknowledging that they’ll never earn an A+ in sustainability— that sustainability is the very definition of a goal with no end.” In addition to the Sierra rankings, Northland College has achieved a STARS gold rating in recognition of its sustainability achievements from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. STARS, the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System measures and encourages sustainability in all aspects of higher education.

Outdoor Pursuits

For Students, By Students After five years of visioning and development, the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute is going big into the outdoors. Really big. The Institute is now home to Outdoor Pursuits, which oversees outdoor recreation services and experiences for the campus community. “Rooted in the philosophy of Sigurd F. Olson, Outdoor Pursuits curates experiences and services which help students develop a sense of place in our region, as well as a sense of belonging within the Northland culture of connecting with others in the out-ofdoors,” said Evan Coulson, Bro Professor of Sustainable Regional Development and assistant professor of outdoor education. Launched last year, Outdoor Pursuits facilitated ninety different outings and trips for 563 participants. Student trip leaders shared their passion for the outdoors and led their fellow students along the tranquil bends of the Namekagon River, the historic winding trails of Forest Lodge, and through the snow-laden hemlocks of the Sylvania Wilderness among other destinations.

FALL 2021

WAT E R

Fish Creek Restoration

Burke Center Unveils Restoration Project to Protect Lake Superior Water Quality Fish Creek, located west of Ashland, is a designated Class I trout stream by the Wisconsin DNR. It is also the largest producer of sediment to Chequamegon Bay—a problem that has only gotten worse since the historic flood of 2018. Referred to as the Father’s Day flood, it washed out the roadbed on US Highway 2, permanently altering the creek’s flow. The flood wave that was released carved a 630-foot-long, 55-foot-high gaping wound into a bluff along the creek that contributes to massive plumes of sediment sent into Chequamegon Bay every time it rains. “This is ground zero for sediment contributions to Chequamegon Bay,” said Matt Hudson, associate director of the

Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation at Northland College. “At times, these sediment plumes are so large they are visible from space.” The Burke Center and a handful of partners are completing a $320,000 stream restoration project designed to stabilize “ground zero” and a nearby bluff that will stop approximately 5,600 tons of sediment from flowing into Fish Creek and ultimately Lake Superior each year. This project is funded by the Great Lakes Commission and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, utilizing funds from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a federal program that has pumped billions of dollars into Great Lakes restoration during the last decade.

Washington Post Opinion

The Southwest’s Water Problems Are About to Get Much Worse By Peter Annin, Director of the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation June 14, 2021 Lake Mead, America’s largest reservoir, is a lifeblood for twenty-five million people in the Southwest. But for the third time in six years, it’s about to hit a record low. Water levels have fallen more than 140 feet since 2000, leaving the reservoir only thirty-six percent full. Today, Mead is rimmed by a broad white bathtub ring marking how far water levels have fallen during the Colorado River’s twenty-twoyear megadrought. The Bureau of Reclamation says the new low record will be set on Thursday, a sober climate-change milestone. Mead has always managed to bounce back from prior lows. But the Bureau’s latest twenty-four-month forecast shows the reservoir stubbornly staying in record territory through year’s end. That has never happened since the Hoover Dam was built in the 1930s. Hence, the federal government is expected to declare an unprecedented shortage on the river this summer, prompting mandatory water cuts, especially in Arizona. “This is a day we

knew would come at some point and we’ve been preparing for this moment for at least a couple of decades,” said Ted Cooke, general manager of the Central Arizona Project, which delivers Colorado River water to eighty percent of the state’s population. Cooke and others continue to push for more conservation. Perhaps no conservation effort is more telling than the water cops in Las Vegas. During a ride-along last month, I watched water waste investigator Perry Kaye nab four homeowners for illegal lawn-watering in just 50 minutes. Nevada is a weird place. Prostitution is legal. Weed is, too. But midday lawn-watering can bring an $80 fine. Vegas doesn’t want the money. Officials would rather pay homeowners to swap their grass for desert landscaping. “If the only person walking on that grass is the person pushing the lawn mower, it should go,” declared Colby Pellegrino, with the Southern Nevada Water Authority. Last week Nevada even passed a law banning grass, in some areas, by the end of 2026.

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FIND OUT MORE AT northland.edu/burke

AV E

RS I

Burke-Affiliated Faculty

Groundwater, Bottled Water, and the Great Lakes Compact More than one-hundred and fifty people attended a groundwaterfocused panel discussion, “Aversion to Diversion: Groundwater, Bottled Water, and the Great Lakes Compact,” at the Big Top Chautauqua. Organized by the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation, Director Peter Annin moderated a discussion with leading Wisconsin water experts Todd Ambs, deputy secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and Ken Bradbury, state geologist and

The Burke Center initiated a new affiliated faculty program this past summer that recognizes collaborations and partnerships between faculty and Burke Center students and staff.

director of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey. The talk was prompted by a controversy in Bayfield County over a proposal to bottle and sell water from an artesian well in Herbster. “The Burke Center fielded numerous questions from local officials and the general public about our groundwater and how it is regulated—questions that have often gone far beyond the Herbster case,” Annin said.

Tracing DNA Alissa Hulstrand, assistant professor of biology, has been conducting microbial source tracking for the City of Ashland, who relies on researchers from the Burke Center to test the city beaches for E. coli bacteria twice a week. She and students collected additional water samples from beaches and stormwater outfalls to use DNA sequencing techniques to determine the animal source of the E. coli. Results will help the City determine sources of E.coli and identify solutions to reduce public health risks at beaches.

Superior Rivers Watershed Association hires Emma Holtan ’20 as their water quality program coordinator. Holtan held several research roles at the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation since 2017—and continues to work part-time at the Center. “Emma brings to this role not only experience with water quality monitoring, data work, grant writing, and science communication, but also a love of water, Lake Superior, connection, and learning,” Superior Rivers Watershed Association said in an announcement. “I am a scientist with a big heart,” Emma said.

Tracking Plants Sarah Johnson ‘02, associate professor of natural resources and biology, has her fingers in dozens of projects involving plants in the region and at the state level. She includes students in projects such as coastal wetland vegetation monitoring and tracking rare plants. In the Apostle Islands and Isle Royale National Park, she monitors many coastal rare species more typically found north of the Great Lakes in the Arctic or alpine habitats. This summer Johnson took a Burke Center student and a UW-Madison graduate student on an eight-day rare plant survey on Isle Royale. ‚ÄúSarah has been an important and influential member of the Burke Center community for several years now,‚Äù said Peter Annin, Burke Center director. "The affiliated faculty program allows us to formally recognize those key collaborations"

FALL 2021

COMMUNITY Sweet Wheat Street Twenty-six years ago, Honore Spickerman transformed an abandoned tavern on Chapple Avenue into the Black Cat Coffeehouse, a place many of us consider their home away from home. Then in 2001, she turned the former pharmacy across the street into the Ashland Baking Company. With these businesses, she set a new standard for coffee and baked goods in the region. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Northland students have passed through these doors as employees and customers. Honore marked the anniversaries in September with a party in the parking lot behind the Black Cat—with four bands, good food and drink. The evening was a beautiful reminder of how these spaces have created community and become an extension of campus.

Connecting Students to the Region In August, SOEI Outdoor Pursuits orientation programming kicked off the semester with trail work. First-year students moved boardwalks, and spread gravel on the Brownstone Trail and Big Ravine Trail in addition to working with the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation, and the Landmark Conservancy’s Lincoln Community Forest and the Tyler Forks Community Forest. “These are opportunities to connect students to our region right from the start,” said Evan Coulson, assistant professor of outdoor education and director of SOEI Outdoor Pursuits. In September, SOEI Outdoor Pursuits led an outing of student volunteers for a trail clearing project in honor of National Public Lands Day, a holiday intended to promote the conservation of public lands. For this they partnered with the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest and the North Country Trail Association. “It is exciting for our program to be able to contribute to meaningful service projects,” Coulson said. “Being able to partner with regional partners and to assist with maintaining trails loved by members of the Northland community made the work even more special.”

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NORTHLAND COLLEGE MAGAZINE

While it may have been grit that got us through the first months of the pandemic, it is heart that carries us through into the future. The alumni featured on the following pages are making the world a better place for the people around them—and we’re all the better for it.

BY JULIE BUCKLES PHOTOGRAPHS BY BOB GROSS

Rebuilding the Health of Our Planet

On September 1, 2021, Todd Rothe ’10 and Jamie Tucker ’16 pulled on leather gloves, hooked up a trailer to a truck, and began collecting garbage bins of food scraps, coffee grounds, and paper products to haul to a farm field to begin the composting process.

“We’re turning organic waste into soil, and we can use that finished compost to regenerate the land, keep our water clean, and grow better food,” Todd said. “Maybe we could keep all the organic waste of Chequamegon Bay out of the landfill—wouldn’t that be beautiful?”

Todd and Jamie have been friends for all their adult lives. They discovered one another initially through their love of timber frame construction and Todd’s first business, Chisel Craft. Todd studied business at Northland; Jamie studied geology and water science. They both are serial entrepreneurs with a deep appreciation for land and community. Twenty years of deer camp and potlucks later, they launched Big Lake Organics, a start-up business to collect organic waste, turn it into compost, and sell the final product to consumers. Big Lake Organics is their local solution to adressing the climate crisis while providing a model for rural development that could be replicated across the country.

of food grown in the United States ends up in a landfill—and there it generates methane, a super-charged greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide. In the last year at Northland, Todd had to start a waiting list for household food waste and limit the amount the College accepted from businesses to keep up with campus’ demands. During the pandemic, compostable to-go containers from campus maxed out the system. “We want to keep capturing as much food waste as possible, and the only way to do that is to grow beyond the small system that is at Northland College and spin off with a company that can handle more waste,” Todd said.

“The composting process is one of the most magical and enriching acts humans have to offer the world—it goes beyond keeping food waste out of the landfill,” Todd said. “Compost is this living substance that feeds soil microorganisms, ramps up photosynthesis in plants, protects against erosion, and aids in sequestering carbon. It gives us the ability to take waste and use it to literally rebuild the health of our planet.”

When Todd first talked to Jamie, who is a fourth-generation shareholder of IDEAL Industries, Inc., a 105-year-old familyowned business, about the idea of a compost business, Jamie was interested for three reasons—it benefits the community and the environment, it’s an example of rural business development, and it builds on a program started by Northland College students twentyeight years ago.

Todd and Kelsey Myrvold-Rothe ’05 own and operate River Road Farm, a diversified organic farm south of campus in the Marengo River valley. He teaches sustainable ag courses at the College and has managed the Hulings Rice Food Center, including a composting center, for the last three years. Yes, he is busy.

Big Lake Organics is now the first Hulings Rice Food Center incubator business to fly the coop—and Northland signed on as their first client. The campus compost program will continue as it has for the last twenty-eight years, but with Big Lake Organics hauling it away for processing.

In his time running the campus composting center, Todd had seen an increased demand for organic waste collection and for finished soil. Food waste is a serious environmental issue. An estimated one-third

“This is an opportunity to take the values that Northland has given us and make something of it, make a business out of it, to help our community,” Jamie said.

NORTHLAND COLLEGE MAGAZINE

“The reason I get really geeked about compost it is the perfect the combination of geology, biology, hydrology, and chemistry—I get to use all four of them in the purpose of making healthy soils.” —Jamie Tucker ’15

FALL 2021

NORTHLAND COLLEGE MAGAZINE

“I could see for the first time that I could write my own story,” —Halee Kirkwood ’15

Where the Love Is If Halee Kirkwood’s life were a book, it would be magical realism—one filled with dragons to slay, charming characters, and chance encounters gripped with meaning. Halee, a 2015 Northland graduate, is an adjunct professor at Hamline University, editor of the literary journal Runestone, teacher at the Loft Literary Center, a poet and writer, and manager of Birchbark Books and Native Arts in Minneapolis—owned by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Louise Erdrich. Halee is twenty-seven years old. A member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Halee grew up in Superior, Wisconsin, but they didn’t discover Northland until Upward Bound, a college preparatory program for underserved youth, organized a visit day. Halee was smitten with Northland’s small class sizes and its interdisciplinary, hands-on approach. In a Native American literature course, Halee read Louise Erdrich’s The Round House. It was the first time Halee had ever read a book by an Ojibwe woman—and they had read a lot. “I could see for the first time that I could write my own story,” Halee said. “The Round House opened up a whole world for me of what Native literature is—my exposure to Louise Erdrich was insanely instrumental as a human and also as an artist.” At Northland, Halee studied literature, writing, eco-criticism, and gender studies. Halee interacted with a dynamic group of peers—one of whom hired Halee for an internship at Aqueous, a regional literary journal. Another pivotal experience: using Parsonage Fund money, Halee and cohorts attended the Association of Writers & Writing Programs conference in Minneapolis. “It was a chance to see how people are doing this, earn a living from a writing life,” Halee said. After graduation, Halee worked at the Vaughn Library in downtown Ashland, Wisconsin. Eighteen months later, they enrolled in an MFA program at Hamline University. “I hope to write stuff that is tied my own experience—I want to show what it looks like beyond the reservation,” Halee said. “I want to get specific about place.” After graduation, they published poetry, taught, and worked part-time at a baby boutique. Then during the early months of the pandemic, Ojibwe poet Anthony Ceballos asked if Halee would like to take some shifts at Birchbark Books and Native Arts—the store had closed its doors, but online sales were booming. A shift here and there grew into more—and soon they were working full-time for Louise Erdrich, the author who had inspired them to pursue writing. “Halee raises the level of discourse anywhere they appear! Not only that, but their warmth, brilliance, and deep understanding of tribal life experience shines out on the world through poetry and bookstore work,” said Erdrich. “Halee has become essential to all we do.” Halee read Erdrich’s first book, Love Medicine, and discovered Crazy Brave by Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. “When I read that book, I thought, Holy crap, someone is writing about this,” Halee said. Crazy Brave is a slim but wholly original and powerful memoir of Harjo’s life from before birth to her time at the Institute of American Indian Arts. “I gave my mom Crazy Brave. She read it and told me, ‘I thought I was alone in all these experiences.’” Halee began leading virtual events with authors like Anton Truer, Ursula Pike, and Congresswoman Sharice Davis, and was named manager of Birchbark Books this past summer. “It was a silver lining of the pandemic year,” Halee said. Halee’s biggest joy is connecting customers to resources and stories they didn’t know existed. “A young person comes in and has never read a book from her tribe—I tell her, ‘Here’s a book—that’s where the love is.”

FALL 2021

Fanning the Flame

You know that look someone has when they’re in love for the first time? The permanent half-smile like they’re recalling a joke from the night before, the easy laugh, lightness of step? That’s the look Scott Griffiths ’97 has. He glows.

He and Kellie moved to Boulder, Colorado, and ran a democratic school. “It was super aligned with my philosophy on how kids learn,” he said. “Give them agency, resources, and they will learn. It was a great passion project.”

For one, he’s married to Kellie Pederson ’98, a ray of sunshine herself. The two of them have lived a long life together doing what they love—as artists, performers, educators, leaders.

They eventually returned to the Chequamegon Bay region and following Kellie’s passion they opened Humble Be yoga studio. Scott was elected to three terms as mayor of Washburn, Wisconsin, before leaving to coordinate a mental health grant for the School District of Ashland.

“I feel blessed, I’ve been able to chase passion my whole adult life,” Scott said from a warehouse he transformed into a haven for youth. “Money has never been the driver.” For the last two and a half years, he’s been leading a state-funded, county run after-school program, named SPARK (Student Pathways to Adventure Resilience and Knowledge) for twelve-to eighteen-year-olds designed as a substance use prevention program. Located in a warehouse by the skate park in downtown Ashland, Wisconsin, SPARK has a basketball hoop and volleyball net outside. There are trailers with mountain bikes, fat tire bikes, and paddleboards ready to hit the trail or water. Inside, there is a skateboard and BMX park, pool and foosball tables, a lounge, refrigerator, office space, and a room with musical instruments and chairs arranged as if waiting for the band to arrive. In other words, anything could happen here. “I’ve spent my whole life being driven by what lights me up and that’s what we’re trying to do with these kids— we help them discover what lights them up,” Scott said. Scott graduated from Northland College with a degree in outdoor education. For his first job out of college, he led troubled teens into the wilderness for thirty days at a time. Two years later, a motorcycle accident and a broken neck left him reconsidering whether he wanted to carry a backpack for a living. While recovering, he earned an alternative education teaching degree and became interested in art. He worked with alumnus Chris Lutter-Gardella ‘93 creating oversized puppets and perfecting street performances with them. A bicycling puppet named Sunny and a parade of large animals caught the eye of Jane Goodall and next Scott, Kellie, Chris, and others were off to “do a gig with Jane” at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. That gig led to years of busking on the streets of cities around the US, then to the world of west African dance—including a trip to Guinea in West Africa.

NORTHLAND COLLEGE MAGAZINE

As that grant wound down, Ashland County contacted Scott about managing another grant to reduce teen substance use in the community, and several weeks later, SPARK was born. “What’s been really fascinating and what I love about this program is that it’s taken everything I’ve ever done in my life, and wraps it all in one package,” he said. At SPARK, the staff’s primary focus is building solid relationships with the youth they serve. Scott and his staff—consisting of several Northland alumni over the years—take students paddle boarding, rock climbing, kayaking, mountain biking, roller skating, snowboarding, and hiking. They host classes in photography, art, and anything else their kids want to pursue. “The activities are great but really it’s about the relationships,” he said. “We’re trying to provide opportunities for kids and hope they find something to light that flame.” Scott’s investment does not stop at the warehouse door. The week before this magazine interview, in early September, he and Kellie deepened their conversations about fostering one of the kids in the program. “This is one of the kids that really hit a soft spot—I’ve been caring and concerned about her since we met at SPARK two years ago,” Scott said. And now two have become a family of three. What he and Kellie are doing for this teen—providing a safe and welcoming home—is what Scott and the SPARK staff continue to offer to the youth of Ashland. They feed them dinner, provide transportation, and see and treat these kids as the as the beautiful, unique, talented, and brilliant kids that they are. “I really, truly can say that I love these kids, my day is better when they show up,” Scott said. “Some of them make me a little crazy sometimes and I still get a smile on my face when I see them walk in that door.”

“I really, trul I love these better when

ly can say that kids, my day is n they show up,” —Scott Griffiths ’97

FALL 2021

A Deeper Weave “I knocked forty-six years off that tree,” April Stone says, pointing back to her house. She’s referring to the pale, bark-less core of a black ash log atop a sawhorse. April lives at the southeastern corner of the Bad River Reservation, her house tucked in beneath an umbrella of healthy hardwoods. April separates black ash logs, one growth ring at a time. The growth rings then get split into splints that she uses to make baskets. She “knocks off” the years with a pounder that looks like a mallet. Depending on the strength of the person and the thickness of the ring, it can take anywhere from a few minutes to about an hour to pound a growth ring loose. April stands in her studio surrounded by rolled spruce roots, willow rims, cedar, elm, a pile of black ash splints, and partially made baskets. She reports her house has a similar vibe. She even has a black ash tattoo. “Making black ash baskets is my life and my passion.” April studied botany at Northland College in the 1990s with Professor Jim Meeker, now deceased. She was part of a twoyear program to earn a natural resources technician certificate. She discovered basketry in 1998 when her then-husband built a basket at the North House Folk School in northern Minnesota. The basket still sits in her studio. She watched his utilitarian basket change and shift and come to life—and when it needed to be repaired, she decided to learn more. She checked out museum collections, books, and images, because at the time, she could not find a practicing basket maker in her community. She chose black ash as a material because it’s accessible, traditional, and weaves nicely. She finished her first basket in 1999. At a traditional spiritual gathering in 2001, she was told that if she followed what’s in her heart, she would be taken care of. “My literal translation was as long as you keep making baskets, you will be taken care of,” she said. In 2000, an invasive species called the Emerald Ash Borer made its way across the Atlantic in shipping pallets—and began devastating black ash trees. Emerald Ash Borer has been detected nearby—in the county next door—

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and April suspects it may be in Ashland County, too. Stone cannot stop the Emerald Ash Borer, but she can respond in the best way she knows—through her craft. In 2016, Stone started a community project building a basket shaped like a coffin. For several weeks, she worked in a public space on Main Street in Ashland, Wisconsin, weaving with the help of community members who stopped in The coffin, which now permanently resides at the Minnesota History Center, represents the potential destruction of her beloved black ash trees as well as the tree’s cultural significance for Indigenous peoples. For years, she searched for a historical tie between black ash basketry and her community, with no luck. But then one day she looked closely at a black and white photograph she had looked at all her life—one of her great-grandma and her grandma. There, behind them, was a black ash work basket. When Stone finally noticed, “I was like, ‘Hey look! There’s a basket!’” Basketry is more than a way to make a living for April. It is a spiritual calling, an historical exploration into her roots as an Ojibwe woman, and a way to connect the next generation to the tactile world. She earns a living making baskets and has become an expert and an ambassador for her craft and for the black ash tree. She teaches around the country, and people from all over come to her to listen and learn. Teaching is where she says hope for humanity lies—helping someone heal, sparking something in someone, creating memories for children. “Basketry goes so much deeper than I first realized—traditional teachings keep showing themselves: patience, humility, respect, wisdom, courage, love,” she said. “If people could make a basket, but also learn about themselves and each other, we could be better humans, nicer humans, kinder humans” You can follow April on Instagram @april.l.stone.

“I make these baske nobody else in my t them. I make these it connects me to n self—where only a f ash basketry remain

ets because tribe is making baskets because nature, history, few stories about n amongst elders.” —April Stone ’95

FALL 2021

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For the Kids

Fun fact about Jim Quinn ’73. He graduated from Cumberland High School where Henry Fitzgibbon ’51 taught. Fitzgibbon, who lives in Florida, is one of Northland’s oldest living alums. It was Henry who encouraged Jim to attend Northland College. “I was fortunate that we crossed paths, because attending Northland was one of the best decisions I ever made,” Jim said. “Henry was a fantastic teacher and always worked to have his students become the best they could be.” The two men still exchange emails a few times a year. Quinn studied music and education at Northland and continued his education, earning a master’s in teaching vocal music. He taught music and chorus and eventually became a principal, earning another master’s as an education specialist. He also coached basketball, football, and was an athletic director and director of transportation. He married his wife Barb in 1979, and they had three children—Amber, a nurse and the manager of an ICU, and twin sons—Aaron, a builder, and Adam, a director of sales. Barb drove a school bus for twenty-eight years, retiring three years ago. Jim retired for the first time in 2006—and went to work as a principal at a private school, a director of finance, district administrator, and bus driver. Now in his sevewnties, he still teaches music fundamentals at a private school and continues to drive bus full-time. “I really enjoy the bus and the kids,” he said. His most satisfying moments have happened in the last year, during the pandemic lockdown. When his school district closed March 17, 2020, Jim’s first concern was for the kids. “I told the district I would do anything to help keep the kids on track with their instruction,” he said. The district and the bus company devised a plan for meals and homework. “I have always been a kid person and I knew we had to do something to keep the kids on track so-to-speak, so when I was asked to drive the bus for meal delivery and homework delivery and pick-up, my answer was easy,” he said.

“Attending Northland was one of the best decisions I ever made.”

For more than a year, he and Manawa Elementary School Health Aide Julie Peterson, delivered sixty meals to students on a five-mile route around the City of Manawa. (The district delivered thousands.) Julie would dress up in costumes each week and tap on windows to wave to the kids. “The kids who came to the window each day got a great kick out of this,” he said. Jim also dropped off homework assignments to Amish students who did not have internet access. Jim would then get it to their teachers to check it so he could return it on his next run. “This was a truly positive outcome to a very bad situation,” he said. “I give a lot of credit the district leadership and our bus company for working so quickly to get a plan in place and then execute.”

FALL 2021

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ARTS & LETTERS

Last Dance on a Hot Planet “Last Dance on a Hot Planet,” a mosaic of upcycled and recycled objects, was donated to Northland by the Kohler Foundation which has provided over fifteen works of art to the College. “Last Dance,” created in 2017 by artist Sally Duback, has been installed in the first floor of the Larson-Juhl Center for Science and the Environment.

Duback created the piece in memory of family friend Meredith Alden, a former trustee of the College.

believe that they are abundant —but the fact is, many species of frogs are endangered,” she said in an artist statement.

“This work is intended to convey a message about our environment and some of the endangered species who inhabit it. I chose frogs, because so many people mistakenly

She chose to portray the frogs humansized to “bring home the importance of this environmental emergency.”

From Headlines to Art

Graphic design student Tyler Wren spent his pandemic year transforming headlines into art. His work was selected for a juried exhibition, PostSecondary, at the Duluth Art Institute.

protesting India’s agricultural laws. Unlike War, creating Famine was a bit more of a struggle. I prefer my images to be dynamic and full of action.

My artwork takes a critical view of social, political, and cultural issues. For one of my projects last year, I created a series of birds that represented the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The bald eagle represents war, for the police brutality and violent riots that happened throughout the summer of 2020. I wanted my bald eagle to be holding a missile, leaning into the war symbolism, but went for

a more dynamic scene with it dropping a series of them with an explosion taking up a portion of the picture. The peacock symbolizes famine for the farmers in India

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Unlike War, Famine is more of a peaceful plague. To add a bit more eye-catching, I decided to have its tail feathers form into a tornado. During some creative discussions with my two colleagues, the idea of having a swarm of locusts was

pitch given their association for destroying crops as well as the actual swarm that plagued India in late May of 2020.

Musician, Poet Joel Glickman Pens First Children’s Book Joel Glickman, emeritus professor of music at Northland College, has written his first children’s book, the delightfully playful Marisol the Parasol: A Bumbershoot Romance. Joel lives on Ellis Avenue with his wife, Susan, where he can often be found playing banjo on his front stoop. He is a musician, prolific poet, and a grandfather of four. He wrote Marisol the Parasol in 2016 during his granddaughter’s birthday party. “I hid out in the upstairs bedroom because little children were running wild through the house,” he said. “And this thing came to me.” The story recounts the saga of Marisol the parasol (an umbrella intended for sunshine) and Louie the parapluie (for rain), the whimsical weather of Paris, and how love conquers all. Glickman wrote Marisol the Parasol but “is terrible at drawing,” so by chance, when he was again at the home of his daughter and granddaughter, he met children’s illustrator Ollie Oliver. The two hit it off and so began years of collaboration and emails. “The process was long but a lot of fun,” he said.

Robertson Releases Second In Fantasy Series Andrea Robertson ʹ00 in September released her latest book, Cast in Secrets and Shadow, the second in a new series. Published by Penguin Books, Cast in Secrets and Shadow is an epic and classic fantasy set in a bleak work with a journey to save it all. A recipient of the 2017, Northern Lights Music & Arts Alumni Award, Andrea began writing novels after a horse broke her foot. Thirteen books later, she believes that horse must have been an agent of fate. She also writes under the name Andrea Cremer. Andrea grew up in Ashland, Wisconsin, studied history at Northland, earned her PhD at Macalester College. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Robertson was a professor of early modern history. She now lives in Southern California with her husband and two dogs.

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The Start of Art at Northland—and an American Crafts Movement By David Saetre Useful knowledge while stimulating the mind is a deep legacy of ceramic arts at Northland College. Northland’s ceramics legacy began in the red clay of the campus with the industry of students and faculty. In the throes of the Great Depression, Northland began the Craft Shop program to provide income for students struggling to pay their expenses. The Craft Shop, built on craft movements in New England and Scandinavia, was designed to produce useful artistic products from native materials and market them throughout the region. The venture included a broom shop, copper shop, print shop and bindery, and a ceramics shop and studio. Founder and director Nathaniel Dexter experimented with red clay drawn from the campus ravine. Pottery from that period reveals the rustic beauty of the materials on campus. In 1955, the College hired Robert Eckels to revitalize the ceramics and craft programs and to establish an art department. Eckels’ new department included the traditional disciplines of drawing and painting, and his work in the Craft Shop revived the Dexter model of ceramics. The program was unique in higher education, combining academic studies with a production studio. Eckels would write, “people didn’t know what art pots were then. You couldn’t get a degree in ceramics anywhere in the United States.” Eckels shaped the new program around three central ideas: that crafts should include artistry, that art should have utility, and that artists should be able to make a living as artists. While teaching at Northland, Eckels opened an independent pottery studio with his friend Glenn Nelson. “The Pot Shop” opened in 1960 on the Fish Creek isthmus west of Ashland. Eckels was at the leading edge of a national revival of craft arts and independent pottery studios. Eckels recalled, “there were only two pottery shops in Wisconsin—Abe Cohen had one in Milwaukee, and there was

ours.” Eckels continued summers at the Pot Shop where college students could apprentice with their professor, refine techniques, and perfect their craft. That program became an integral part of a ceramic arts legacy that laid the foundation for the region’s art scene. Eckels also contributed to Ceramics: A Potter’s Handbook, the standard textbook for ceramics instruction. Apprentices came to the Chequamegon Bay from all over the United States and Europe to study with Bob. Karlyn (Welton) Holman ’62 was the first of more than eighty interns to learn the art and business of

Next, Viken Peltekian’s emphasized creative, sculptural clay form, as well as functional craft pottery. Ceramic arts and the potter’s wheel are now in the hands of Assistant Professor Lauren Duffy. Before Duffy arrived in 2015, she recognized Northland’s pottery legacy. “Before I came to Northland, I knew the name Bob Eckels from contemporary ceramics history. Coming to Northland and knowing that Bob started the ceramics program—it felt super cool to be connected to the legacy of people I had read about in books,” she said.

“All art has function; some is meant to be held or used like tools and some is meant to be seen and used to stimulate your mind.” —Lauren Duffy, assistant professor of art

professional, production ceramic arts. Studying art at Northland, Karlyn would eventually best be known as a watercolor artist, teacher, and owner of Karlyn’s Gallery in Washburn, Wisconsin. But her early work came from the potter’s wheel. Karlyn recalled with her characteristic laugh, “someone once told me I was too happy to become a painter, so I threw pots!” Learning the business and industry of the arts, as well as creative craft, laid the groundwork for Karlyn’s own gallery and apprentice program. Holman succeeded Eckels as an art professor at Northland, expanding the influence of the College on the arts and crafts scene in northern Wisconsin. The artists and apprentices attracted to the College and the region included potters who would teach at Northland. Stan Samuels’ tenure at the College saw the introduction of raku firing.

Duffy also sees new directions for ceramic arts in the region. “I’m trying to balance both new and old technology, and both functional and conceptual work,” Duffy notes. “I believe learning what functionality is and how to achieve a utilitarian object goes hand-inand with developing conceptual work. I feel the work in this area is very “place” based, and I think this will continue as this area seems to connect with people, so they want to take the inspiration with them.” Northland ceramics continues a cultural legacy in clay and in the work of students who learned how to center clay on a wheel here. The utility of a well-formed bowl, the beauty of form and color in a glazed pot, and the stimulating artistry of clay sculpture are the products of clay arts. It’s a legacy as ancient and contemporary as the red clay soil of Northland College.

FALL 2021

ATHLETICS

Sons Return to Learn More About Athletic Father

The sons of Edward McGroarty ’39 visited the campus where their dad played football and basketball. At 6’2 and 215 pounds, Edward McGroarty excelled at football and basketball at Northland. He was inducted into the Northland Hall of Fame in 1983. He served as captain of the football team 1938-1939 and was captain of the basketball team for three years. After graduation, McGroarty signed with the Green Bay Packers. He also played professional basketball with the Oshkosh All-Stars. The 1940 Wedge had this to say about Edward: “#7 fullback �Mac� has reached the end of the trail at NC, leaving behind an enviable record of fine play and sportsmanship. Our sparkplug and ace in the hole, he was always in the thick of the battle. A real All-American, his name will never be forgotten in Northland’s annals."

1966 Wrestling Alumnus Inducted into National Wrestling Hall of Fame Thomas McDougal wrestled at Northland in 1966, its first season as an official sport. He was only here for a season but went on to enjoy success as a coach in Michigan. This past year, he was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame for his coaching ability. He stopped by campus this past summer to reconnect with his alma mater and to collect his letter N for the Hall of Fame display.

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"Northland is a second home and the team is like another family." Keagan Culbertson Sophmore from Florida

northland.edu/give2athletics SPRING 2021

FIRST PERSON

My One and Precious Life By Ella Shively ’21

On our day off between class sessions this March, I took myself on a bookstore tour of Bayfield County. I promised myself I wasn’t going to spend any more money on books; I was only going to look. So, as I walked out of Honest Dog Books with a thick compilation of Mary Oliver poetry, I heard a bell tolling down by the lake. This bell was so sweet and so resonant, I had to follow the sound. As I walked, the calling of the bells multiplied, and when I saw that my ears were leading me toward the Apostle Islands Marina, I realized the truth. There was no ghost ship calling me down to the waves with the chiming of its bell. This beautiful music originated from the sailboats propped up on shore, their steel cables clamoring against the tall, empty masts. I sat down beside the lake, and I began to read. And I thought to myself, this is one of the very last times in your life that you will be a young college student reading poetry on the margins of the lake that called you home. There is a quote from a Mary Oliver poem that both thrills and terrifies me. You have probably heard this quote before. I’ve seen it on prints, necklaces, t-shirts, and of course, graduation cards. It goes like this: Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? When I heard this quote for the first time, I was struck by two feelings: awe, at the possibilities my one life could hold. And terror, at the idea that I had wasted my one life. Sometimes I thought of this quote as I was feverishly entering data for my Capstone project at one in the morning, and I wondered, what am I doing with my life? If I have one life to live, shouldn’t I drop out of college now and start traveling? Dance in Mediterranean sunshine, climb the slick, black rocks facing the sea on the coast of Maine. And what if I wasn’t doing enough with my life to empower the lives of others? I wasn’t looking for Mary Oliver when I went to Bayfield, and I wasn’t looking for that poem when I bought her book. I just happened to flip to her most famous poem, and when I got to the last two lines, I realized I recognized them. I had never read the quote in the context of the full poem before, and that completely changed my interpretation. So I’m going to read the poem for you now. It’s called The Summer Day. Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper?

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This grasshopper, I mean– the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down– who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away. I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should I have done?

November 30, 2021 northland.edu/give NORTHLAND COLLEGE MAGAZINE

Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

Dan’s Dill Finding beauty in a plant that grows like a weed. By Kathryn Simpson ’22 Dill grows like a weed in the garden hidden on the outskirts of Northland College’s campus. It grows like a weed because I put it there. As I settled into my first summer working in the campus gardens and living along the south shore of Lake Superior, I was comforted by the discovery of a familiar object in the garden shed: a Smucker’s grape jelly jar with a purple lid, half-full of dill seed. I knew in an instant that this had been my grandfather’s. Every summer morning, he carries one of those jars while he strolls along his fence, dolloping jelly on the posts for the orioles, who hang a few feet back, waiting for their breakfast. The seeds the jar contained could only have come from his garden. The migration of that jar from Durand, Wisconsin, all the way to the north woods of Ashland, Wisconsin, could be attributed to my brother, Danny Simpson ’18, a former garden crew employee and my current boss. He approved of my decision to scatter the remaining seed all over the garden, much to the confusion, and even dismay, of my fellow gardeners. I gave orders that the dill was not to be pulled up, hoed, or disturbed, except where it choked out our other produce. The dill had to stay. And stay it did, enough to pop up again the following year, when I collected mature stalks by the bucketful, saving even more seed. This spring, that same jelly jar sits full of seeds. I take a few out on occasion and rub them between my fingers. They’re thin, with rounded sides, and they come to a point on both ends. These flat, fragile seeds contain all

the essentials for a life to begin. Somewhere, buried in their DNA, I know they hold the memory of a garden, tucked behind a house, not far from the Chippewa River. I haven’t seen my grandfather in over a year. I’m glad he and I have been cautious about COVID, but it’s tough to stay in contact with him. He’s not one to chat on the phone for very long. Usually, he calls with a specific question in mind, and when he’s past the formalities of checking how I’m doing, he’ll end the call abruptly with a “Well, be good.” Click. He’d rather give someone a bucket of raspberries and a pound of ground beef than delve too far into his feelings. I can’t say I’m all that different. Those dill seeds preserve my connection to him. Even though we’re separated by miles of woods, lakes, and farmland, our dill can remember each other. I think my hunger for connection was what drove me to scatter those seeds in the first place. How could I work the soil without the company of those familiar, pale-yellow blossoms, branching out like an upsidedown umbrella and wafting their scent on the breeze? On campus, we certainly don’t grow dill because it sells well. Only a few people appreciate its culinary uses. A woman with a southern drawl and a wallet full of twodollar bills will eagerly seek out our young dill leaves at the farmer’s market, but most days it’ll slowly wilt in the sun, untouched until the end of the market, when I try to hand it off for free. Pickling season is a different story. Certain people come hungry for it then, buying it in bundles of mature stalks. But it only satisfies

the few customers who desperately need it and is overlooked by everyone else. We harvest the leaves and stalks all the same, cleaning and recording how much was harvested, along with the other produce. The dill’s specific variety has been forgotten, so on the record sheet, it’s listed as Dan’s Dill, after my grandfather. My grandparents never used dill for much either, but I think they enjoyed the aroma. I still remember my grandma, sick and couchridden from chemotherapy, asking me to get her some dill from the garden. She seemed so happy to smell those small, yellow flowers, rolling the stalk between her fingers. She was too ill to go outside, but the dill could help her imagine the garden—what it would be like to stroll around it again if only her lungs would cooperate. After she asked for that first stem, I started bringing bouquets of blossoms to her more often, so she could enjoy the scent. Now that she’s gone, I think a lot about that little bit of dill—that small gift—a simple herb helping her cling to a shred of humanity while her body withered away. When I finally leave Ashland, I’ll take that jelly jar with me, stuffed to the brim with fragrant seeds to scatter wherever I land next. I’ll keep bringing them with me, to every garden, every farm, every salvageable piece of land. And all along the way, they’ll have trace memories woven into their DNA, remembering a garden, tucked behind a house, not far from the Chippewa River. Kathryn Simpson is a writing major and an employee of the Hulings Rice Food Center. She wrote this essay in “WRI 273: Writing the Environmental Essay” taught by alum Emily Stone ’04.

SPRING 2021

IN MEMORIUM

Robert Rue Parsonage August 20, 1937-July 31, 2021

While serving at Northland as president, Parsonage, center, would teach classes when he could and also sit in on other instructors classes, such as an outdoor session held by professor Pat Shifferd, at left with raised arm. By Rick Olivo ’73 The Northland College that people visit today looks the way it does due in large measure to the efforts of Robert Rue Parsonage, who served as its president from 1987 to 2002. That is the assessment of Parsonage’s longtime friend David Saetre. Parsonage, who was born August 20, 1937, in Minneapolis died July 31 at his home in the Bayfield County town of Namakagon after a decade-long struggle with paralysis due to multiple strokes. “The modern Northland campus is the Bob Parsonage campus,” Saetre said. “If you look at the campus today, the Ponzio campus center, the Larson Juhl Center for Science and the Environment, the complete renovations of Mead and Brownell halls, the McClain dormitory, the rebuilding of Wheeler Hall, the Art Center, all of those were done during his presidency.” Saetre said coming into the job, he knew that Parsonage was not expecting to preside over the rebuilding of his campus. “I think he went where the need led him,” he said. “I am convinced if the college had not made those innovations and investments, I don’t think the college would still be here.” When Parsonage arrived at Northland, Wheeler Hall, built in 1892 as the original Northern Wisconsin Academy, was in poor structural condition and some advised razing it. “Bob was adamant about not wanting to do that,” said Don Chase, who worked alongside

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Bob during his tenure. “I think we can say Bob saved that building.”

with the denomination of which he was an ordained minister,” she said.

In saving Wheeler, whose exterior brownstone blocks are carved with the numerals of the year of each graduating class, Parsonage may well have saved the physical representation of the soul of Northland College.

Lull said Parsonage developed a deep love for Northland and may even have sacrificed his health to the heavy load of work he took on. But Lull believes it all was worth it and, in fact, the effort is not yet completed.

Soul was a very important part of Parsonage’s life. A graduate of Minnetonka High School, he received degrees from Carleton College, the Pacific School of Religion in Berkley, California, Harvard Divinity School, and his doctorate from Hartford Seminary Foundation in Connecticut.

“I deeply feel the job has to continue in the hands of others, younger and more vital,” she said. “The one really important thing that he did before he exited the door of the presidency was to establish the Parsonage Fund, because he really knew that it would be in the hands of the next generation to carry on some of the passions he felt his whole life.”

Parsonage became involved in the civil rights movement while serving as chaplain and assistant professor of religion at Springfield College in Massachusetts. He joined the Rev. Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, traveling to the South several times to work for social justice.

The Robert Rue Parsonage Fund for Opportunities provides funds for students to attend and present at conferences and workshops, to do advanced research and to participate in internships.

For several years, he served as an executive for the National Council of Churches in Christ in the USA, and in 1969 married artist and illustrator Ruth Lull. The couple had two sons, Noah and Ethan.

Lull said those sorts of activities, and not in the construction and renovation of buildings, are Parsonage’s true legacy.

Lull said there were a few major themes that helped to define Parsonage’s perspective. They included his religious beliefs, a commitment to social justice, his relationship to higher education and his love for a sustainable environment. “Those last two are what brought us here, ironically, to a college that is a part of his spiritual side, because the college got its start

“There are no buildings named after Bob, but the building of the Parsonage Fund is something that would build the next generation of students,” she said. “He never really wanted to be known as the building president. It is what could be done for the next generation that really mattered.” Rick Olivo wrote this obituary for the Ashland Daily Press where he has been a journalist for thirty years. He retires in December.

Sympathy to the Families of: Dana (Domitrovich) Brookins ’89, Ontonagon, MI, 4/16/2018

Sandra (Bushman) Saner ’70, Woodridge, IL, 7/22/2021

Patrick N. Dotson ’74, Fall Creek, WI, 11/16/2020

Donald A. St. Louis ’70, Ashland, WI, 7/26/2021

Sarah (Worden) Paulson ’44, Hartford, WI, 11/21/2020

Lu (Spaulding) Bardill ’50, Port Charlotte, FL, 8/6/2021

Vicki S. Bailey ’99, Gainesville, FL, 1/8/2021

Mary (Thurston) Elleson ’48, Antigo, WI, 8/8/2021

Michael W. Harmon ’66, Worthington, MN, 3/4/2021

Robert E. Nielsen ’63, Rochester, MN, 8/17/2021

Glenn R. Dallman ’50, Saint Petersburg, FL, 3/9/2021

Robert E. Cameron ’61, Ashland, WI, 8/22/2021

Richard A. Burke ’69, Toms River, NJ, 3/12/2021

Andrew M. Merwin ’18, Milwaukee, WI, 8/23/2021

Craig Haukaas ’84, Ashland, WI, 3/17/2021

Kenneth J. Nemec ’89, Phillips, WI, 8/25/2021

Ruth (Ferries) Beck ’68, Saint Cloud, MN, 3/18/2021

Jack R. Reed ’69, Rice Lake, WI, 9/1/2021

John E. Eliason ’54, Sayner, WI, 3/19/2021

Robert R. Nelson ’65, Goodyear, AZ, 9/4/2021

Marion (Porter) Christensen ’48, Amery, WI, 4/3/2021

Theodore H. Geeraerts ’72, Holmes Beach, FL, 9/6/2021

James N. Pinar ’64, Gladstone, MI, 4/9/2021

Ervin F. Kamm ’62, Hamel, MN, 9/7/2019, Former Trustee 1998-2001

Jane (Tilley) Tolliver ’70, Ashland, WI, 4/26/2021

Corinne Fossum Miller ’46, Middleton, WI, 6/20/2020, Former Trustee 1973-1976

David J. Ramme ’98, Ironwood, MI, 5/8/2021

Clarice “Sis” Hanson, Ashland, WI, 8/23/2021, Former Staff 1970-1999

Margaret (Perrin) Abrams ’44, Burton, MI, 5/21/2021 William D. Wuebben ’64, West Bend, WI, 5/26/2021 Patricia (Sibbald) Hessing ’59, Grand Rapids, MN, 5/26/2021 David H. Thompson ’64, El Cajon, CA, 6/7/2021 Theodore A. Chan ’75, Prescott, WI, 6/16/2021 Bruce C. Rivard ’75, Caspian, MI, 6/29/2021 Suzanne C. Cram ’89, Phoenix, AZ, 7/5/2021 Donna (Weis) Kegel ’58, Spooner, WI, 7/9/2021

Sandra Wilkerson Stolle Sandra Wilkerson Stolle, who at 23 was spotlighted as the youngest dean of womenin the coiuntry, died June 18, 2021, with her husband Mark Hudson by her side. She was 75. Sandy joined Northland College in the fall of 1969, and on January 4, 1970, she was on the cover of Parade magazine. According to the feature story in Parade titled, “The Dean Is One of the Girls,” Wilkerson was a green-eyed blonde who wore miniskirts, drove a little white foreign car, and danced at the parties she chaperoned. In other words, she was cool and hip and relatable to the 200 Northland women in her charge. Sandra was hired by Northland not for her young age but for her skills, then President Dr. Robert V. Cramer, told Parade magazine. She had been recommended by a professor at Duke University. Sandy earned a liberal arts degree at Florida Southern College and a master’s degree in guidance counseling at Duke. Her cover girl moment led to appearances on the TV shows What’s My Line? and the The Phil Donahue Show. After a couple of years, Sandy left Northland but remained in the region. She took a position with the State of Wisconsin as an employment counselor and an adoption specialist for children with special needs where she worked for twenty-five years. “If you wanted to know about her life, you had to piece it together,” said her husband, Mark Hudson. “She was not ‘braggadocio’ to use her word. She was very kind and very giving and she went too soon.”

FALL 2021

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GIVING

A Family Tradition of Knowledge and Self-Discovery In 1932, Milton Sprague had only two ways to get from his home in Washburn, Wisconsin, to Northland College. Milton either hopped aboard a train or took a narrow dirt road thirteen miles to Ashland. The Sprague’s were a timber family. It was three years into the Great Depression, and Milton was the youngest of three. He followed his two older siblings to Northland College, which was established in 1892 to serve the children of miners, immigrants, lumbermen, and the neighboring Ojibwe communities. “Families did not have the resources to send their kids to urban areas for college,” said Milton’s son, Monroe, in an interview on the back porch of his dad’s home, located on Lake Superior in Washburn. At that time, more than half of the College’s students were from Ashland and the surrounding area. Milton lived in the basement of President Joseph Daniel Brownell’s house and worked in the College print shop. He studied chemistry and biology, took religion courses, and was a member of the “Hungry Seven,” along with Alva, Ann, and Arthur Minar, who sat together for meals. His brother Vance had graduated the year before and moved to Madison to earn a graduate degree in agronomy; his sister Prudence was in her final year at Northland. “Dad earned a liberal arts degree, yet he was a scientist,” Monroe said. “He felt the liberal arts were important.” After Northland, Milton—like his brother Vance—attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, earning a degree in agronomy. That’s where he met Margarete, a graduate of the Oklahoma College for Women, who was obtaining her master’s degree and teaching certificate in German. They married and moved east when Milton took a job as a professor of agricultural sciences at Rutgers University. “Dad experimented in no-till farming as a way to reduce the number of passes a farmer would need to take over their field,” Monroe said. “Next, he experimented in red clover and later conducted experiments in finding better ways to store silage.” For this work, he gained international recognition for his expertise in no-till farming and agronomy—and his work from that era can be seen in current farming practices. Monroe became acquainted with Northland College when his dad would bring him home to Washburn during summer vacations. “He was fond of the College and gave to it,” Monroe said. Monroe and his siblings established a scholarship in the 1990s in the name of Milton and Margarete—because both believed that a liberal arts education was the start of a wondrous journey into knowledge and self-discovery. Monroe did not follow in his dad’s agronomical footsteps, but he did study biology and chemistry and became an ear, nose, and throat doctor. He and his wife Carol, live in Chico, California, but use the house in Washburn during the summer, entertaining kids and grandkids, nieces and nephews, and friends. Now retired, he and Carol continue to support the family’s scholarship endowment, ensuring its viability into the future. In particular, the Sprague’s continue to give because of their commitment and desire to support rural students and to further the College’s mission of training and educating stewards of the land. “We want to invest in future generations,” Monroe said, looking out at Lake Superior. “It’s the best way to help people appreciate the world.”

NORTHLAND COLLEGE MAGAZINE

Monroe and Carol Sprague in their family home in Washburn

The Goetzes Lasting Legacy In 1991, Bruce Goetz, a professor of geology, and his wife, Ruth, gave the first $1,000 gift to the Tim Carpenter memorial Scholarship Endowment. Tim had been a student of Bruce’s in the 1970s—and Bruce wanted to do something to honor the young man he called friend.

“I have seen people do some very nice things for Northland and Northland people over the years,” Don Chase, assistant vice president of development wrote to the Goetz’s. “Yours ranks right at the top.” That’s how Bruce and Ruth roll. Bruce came to Northland in 1969 to teach geology because he believed in the Northland mission—that students come first. “Fifty-two years later, I firmly believe that has not changed,” he said, sitting on his deck, a view to the Namekagon River. Bruce’s legacy is lasting. He was integral to the creation of several majors: environmental studies, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), outdoor education, and meteorology. He taught one of the first computer classes and carved the College’s mace used at formal ceremonies.

“The beauty of a small college— adaptability,” Ruth commented.

Bruce traveled the country with students from the Tetons in Wyoming to the lava flows in Hawaii and down the Grand Canyon. In his forty-seven years at the College, his door was always open. “I was able to help students learn about the things I love,” he told a reporter in 2017 when he was awarded professor emeritus. “Right up to the end I was happy to see students learning and being enthused.” Bruce and Ruth have retired to the Namekagan River, where Bruce still bikes 20-40 miles a day—sometimes with his former colleague Tom Fitz, professor of geology—and socializes with former students. He also teaches the neighbors about the rocks in their yards. Bruce and Ruth started giving to the College when he taught at the College and continue to give now. “I’m grateful I’m in a position where I can still help,” he said. “I spent my career at one place, and I want it to succeed.”

“ I was able to help students learn about the things I love.”

FALL 2021

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CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

“My wife Nancy always told me, if you’re going to give, give big. Make an impact.” —Roger Dreher engineer, conservationist, friend of the College.

Roger Dreher and friends support the Nancy C. & Roger H. Dreher Endowed Scholarship to provide financial support to Northland College students who would otherwise find it difficult to pursue higher education.

northland.edu/give

FULL STORY

northland.edu/dreher